Ethics in Counselling Research
Ethical guidelines for researching counseling
1. Trustworthiness
The distinctive ethical dimension of the counseling practice is the trust placed by clients in practitioners. This trust is not only essential to achieving the client’s aspirations but also for the practitioner to establish the quality of relationship and interaction that makes the work possible. Counseling and psychotherapy require a high level of frankness on the part the client. The client needs to feel able to tell the truth, as he or she understands it, without withholding information merely because it is personally sensitive or discredits the speaker. Trust is also required to face the uncertainties and sense of personal vulnerability that may be involved in the counseling and psychotherapeutic process. It is part of the practitioner’s responsibility to be sufficiently trustworthy to enable constructive working relationships with clients. Trust requires a quality of relationship between service user and provider that is sufficient to withstand any challenges arising from inequality, difference, uncertainty and risk in their work together. Ethical researchers not only take account of the quality of trust required to make counseling and psychotherapy possible but also seek the highest possible levels of trustworthiness and integrity for themselves with regard to :the relationship with the people being researched and all other people involved directly in the research. Those responsible must be satisfied they have taken all reasonable steps to protect the dignity and rights of participants and to manage any risks to their safety or wellbeing. ‘For example, the implications of monitoring client ‘non-attendances’ may be adequately addressed within the usual supervision of practice arrangements. Similarly, the use of externally validated instruments may be adequately considered within counseling or psychotherapy supervision, unless they are considered likely to be problematic to clients in ways
1. Trustworthiness
The distinctive ethical dimension of the counseling practice is the trust placed by clients in practitioners. This trust is not only essential to achieving the client’s aspirations but also for the practitioner to establish the quality of relationship and interaction that makes the work possible. Counseling and psychotherapy require a high level of frankness on the part the client. The client needs to feel able to tell the truth, as he or she understands it, without withholding information merely because it is personally sensitive or discredits the speaker. Trust is also required to face the uncertainties and sense of personal vulnerability that may be involved in the counseling and psychotherapeutic process. It is part of the practitioner’s responsibility to be sufficiently trustworthy to enable constructive working relationships with clients. Trust requires a quality of relationship between service user and provider that is sufficient to withstand any challenges arising from inequality, difference, uncertainty and risk in their work together. Ethical researchers not only take account of the quality of trust required to make counseling and psychotherapy possible but also seek the highest possible levels of trustworthiness and integrity for themselves with regard to :the relationship with the people being researched and all other people involved directly in the research. Those responsible must be satisfied they have taken all reasonable steps to protect the dignity and rights of participants and to manage any risks to their safety or wellbeing. ‘For example, the implications of monitoring client ‘non-attendances’ may be adequately addressed within the usual supervision of practice arrangements. Similarly, the use of externally validated instruments may be adequately considered within counseling or psychotherapy supervision, unless they are considered likely to be problematic to clients in ways